The cafe was quiet, barring the sound of a sobbing bipedal fox. A Growlithe dressed in an apron customised for her quadrupedal form awkwardly patted Zoroark's back as across from her sat an Espeon, who was using her tail to hold the handle of the teacup she was drinking from.

"I'm so scared Miss Espeon, Zorua keeps wandering off! What if no one can find him this time?" the dark type cried, tears dropping into her smoothie. The glass was comically small in her paws, the berry blend rippling with each droplet.

Espeon could hear the apprentice Rockruff in the corner sobbing himself, about his masterpiece being ruined. How proud that kid was about his berry smoothies, he should stick to them instead of poisoning himself taste-testing the hot chocolates. "He'll be fine, Zoroark. You know he always is. He probably went flower-hunting again."

"The last time he went flower-hunting, Flaaffy had to save him from a Sunflora," Zoroark whispered, a slight hiss to her words. "I love my son but he's completely senseless. He'll never become an adult at this rate."

As the fox started sobbing in despair again, Growlithe stared at the two adults awkwardly before scurrying over to Rockruff. "Come on mate, you know it's nothing personal. The lady's just upset… Like always."

"Why can't she ruin someone else's creation," Rockruff sniffed, staring at his bowl of half mashed berries. "Cry into some coffee instead!"

Growlithe shook her head, observing as Zoroark continued crying whilst Espeon sipped her tea with the grace of a noble lady. "You're right, her tears would probably make your coffee taste better." She giggled as her fellow apprentice glared at her. "Chill out, as soon as someone brings her kid back, she'll cry a bit more, blabber a bit then leave with him."

As if on cue, they heard the bell ring, signalling someone's arrival.

"Did someone order some sunflowers?" Raihan barked cheerfully as he barged through the door, Piers slugging behind him as Zorua followed them, sunflower stem clenched in his mouth and big red eyes blinking.

"Why does it smell like tears in here?" Upon hearing the little fox's words, Zoroark sprung out of her seat, somersaulting before landing in front of him, sweeping him up and hugging him. "Mum, what are you doing? I just went looking for flowers."

The Zoroark's tears did not cease as she snapped, squeezing him tight. Hearing him let out a strangled noise then start wriggling, Raihan and Piers exchanged glances wondering if Zorua would have been safer with the Ekans. "Don't you give me that, I woke up and you were gone, you didn't even say goodbye! I only knew where you were because Haunter said he saw you wander off!"

"This Haunter sounds like a shit stirrer," Piers deadpanned as Raihan snorted. "If we meet him, let's not trust a word he says."

"That would be sound advice," Growlithe said, strolling over to them with a clipboard in her maw. "Can I get you guys anything? We run a 'hero special' for half off, only 500 poke per cappuccino or berry smoothie."

As the Trapinch perked up, his Zigzagoon friend appeared to be outright offended. "We don't have any money but that sounds like extortion."

"Oh don't worry," Zoroark chirped, dropping a bag of gold in front of them. Raihan's eyes lit up. "You can have them on me, add this to my tab will you Growlithe? This is on top of your reward, ok? Come on, Zorua!"

Piers watched the two dark types leave as Raihan immediately starting enquiring about the menu, feeling his sore muscles nag him. Fine, maybe this wouldn't be too bad. "I'll have an oran berry smoothie if you do them."

Growlithe led the two to their table, Rockruff swiftly returning to mashing berries with twice the enthusiasm as earlier. From her own table, Espeon watched the two before pouring herself a second cup of tea from the pot.

"Lighten up, mate," Raihan chimed after Growlithe took their orders, scampering off to do her thing. "We're a step closer to finding Leon now, because we decided to help that kid."

"I know but that doesn't change the fact we're wasting time we could be using to find him," Piers grumbled, digging through the bag to retrieve the fabric. Clenching it in his teeth, he dropped it between them. "The scent is so weak, is anyone really going to be able to track it?"

Raihan sniffed it, then pulled a face. "I don't know, now it has your raccoon saliva on it. Not having hands sucks. Whoever can help us, they'd probably just get led straight to you."

Piers glared at him. "Don't start, I have not had nowhere enough sugar to deal with your bullshit."

"What bullshit? Not losing my mind because we're taking a break for five minutes?" The words left a little harsher than intended, however it was enough, the two friends forgetting their surroundings to glower at each other.

"You're the one who convinced us to get drunk in the first place, we wouldn't even be in this mess otherwise!"

"Oh yeah, blame it on me, not the little shit that sent us here! Trapinch can learn Superpower, Piers, do you want to try me?"

"That's cute, thinking you're a threat. A 100 attack stat means nothing when you have a 10 in speed, mate!"

"Don't go 'mate-ing' me now, bud! You have a 30 in both your attack stats!"

Suddenly, some boiling hot tea appeared floating in the air above them before splashing, eliciting pained cries from the both of them. "Ah, the fuck?" Piers shook his fur, rubbing his snout as Raihan's head hit the table, his energy suddenly zapped from the attack.

"Oww, who the hell used Scald…"

"That would be me," a pretty and feminine voice purred, the two suddenly injured former-humans looked up to see Espeon before them, a sweet smile on her face despite her brutal assault. "The cafe isn't the place for lover's quarrels, darlings. Did journeying back with that child really stress you out that much?"

Raihan was oh so thankful as Growlithe placed some rawst and oran berries down between them, quickly scoffing his half down. "It's nothing to do with the kid, Zorua was fine. All he did was ramble about pretty flowers. We've just been on the road too long, surely."

"It's the second day," Piers mumbled, narrowing his eyes as his newly healed snout wrinkled. "We lost our friend yesterday so… Things have been tense."

Espeon's ears drooped as she slinked down, peering at the cloth. "I see… Lost in which way? Is this part of their scarf or something?"

The two glanced at each other, feeling unsettled. They could tell Leon had been alive when he got separated from them, but how long would that remain true, with him being Arceus knows where? "We were all in the forest together, but Leon got split from us I guess, all we could find was this." Raihan nudged the scrap towards her. "It was part of his shirt. But we can't get a scent on it. Do you think you can, Miss?"

"Oh? My tracking days are over, but I'll try." She closed her eyes and her nose wrinkled, examining every inch of the cloth. "I can smell traces of a Charmander… I think you got some of your scent on it too, Zigzagoon, dear." Piers would have been feeling sheepish if he wasn't suddenly so startled, locking eyes with Raihan as he looked at him. They were thinking the same thing, but they couldn't let it spill in case it wasn't safe. Either way, they knew. They knew what they were looking for.

"You picked up Lee's scent! Is it strong enough to track him from the forest? Neither us or Zorua could pick anything up when we were on our way out." Raihan's enthusiasm was dampened slightly as Espeon gave them what could only be deciphered as an apologetic smile.

"I wish I could say for sure, but there's a major problem if you got lost in the forest. Mystery dungeons change so much that even if he found his way out, you two might not be able to find that same path again."

Piers' wagging tail halted and he mumbled, brow furrowed. "I've heard that phrase a few times but I still don't know what it means, what's a mystery dungeon?"

Rockruff intruded on their conversation with a cheerful yap as he set their drinks out. "Oh, I can tell you! They're mysterious places where space has distorted, so their layouts are constantly changing. You could enter the forest one day, and in the morning of the next, your path right home disappears! It's why it's very important to have an explorer's badge or escape orbs on you, otherwise you could be waiting for a week before you can find a path back to the village."

"That's terrifying," Raihan gasped, mouth falling open. "And kids like Zorua keeping going there on their own? For flowers? I wouldn't want to step foot in one ever again!"

"Especially if they have giant dynamaxed snakes, I might have needed to think a bit more about helping Zoroark if I knew there were Ekans dynamaxing in there," Piers grumbled, before blinking as Espeon, Rockruff and Growlithe stared at them, jaws slack. "What?"

Espeon cleared her throat, her eyes gleaming. "I see you know about dynamaxing. But dynamax spots aren't native to this continent, they're naturally located across the sea on the landmass we call the 'Mystery Continent'. That's where the legendary Eternatus lurks, its power gives Pokemon in these locations the potential to dynamax. However, in the last few months, Pokemon have started dynamaxing in our continent and those neighbouring it. Rumours are that someone has angered Eternatus and so they have cursed us all." She exhaled, her breath escaping long and slow. "Those Pokemon that dynamax lose all sense and attack not out of malice but primal instinct, their bodies aren't used to such an overflow of power and they go on a rampage. Adventurers and rescue teams usually deal with these situations, however the dynamax phenomenon happens without pattern and someone always ends up hurt. How did this dynamaxed Ekans act?"

The two of them exchanged glances, their bodies aching as though reminding them. "It certainly acted senseless," Raihan mumbled with a weak laugh. "We found Zorua hiding from it and as soon as it saw us, it attacked us. It was… Incredibly fast for something so huge."

"You fought a dynamax mon and lived? You two must be quite strong!" Rockruff cheered, Piers awkwardly looked at their bag.

"We wouldn't have survived without supplies, I think if I didn't eat a blast seed, we would have fainted at best."

"Blast seeds are cool but being able to naturally breathe fire is better," Growlithe snorted, Espeon shook her head and ordered.

"Can you kids sort me out a smoothie and cake? I have some business to discuss with these two."

The apprentices ran off and Raihan watched after them, tilting his head. "You want to talk to us?"

She nodded, tapping the table with her paw. "Mayor Ninetales told me about you. You two are humans, aren't you?"

The two of them gawked at her, Piers quickly searching for words. "What? We never told- Where did you get that idea from?"

"Call it a hunch, he said you told him you were from 'Galar' and you lived with and knew humans. So the reasonable theories seemed to be that either you were someone's Pokemon, or you were trainers yourself." She giggled, watching them look at each other. "Don't worry, I won't spill your secret to the others. My son seems to think you came here through an ultra wormhole though."

"That was a theory we had," Piers mumbled, furrowing his brow. "We had an Eevee jump on us this morning, would that… Be your son?"

She brought her paw to her face. "I'm afraid so. I'm sorry about him, he can be a bit of a handful."

"What's his deal?" Raihan shovelled some of his cappuccino in his mouth, gulping it down. "When we brought up humans, he said some… Less than flattering things."

"Well, some of the heroes of our land were rumoured to be former human so there's a level of respect for them particularly, but humans aren't put in a very positive light otherwise in our fables." Espeon's tail swished. "Amongst the tales of humans and Pokemon being friends, there's also stories of humans enslaving Pokemon, causing disasters and polluting our world. It is to the extent that many are glad that they're extinct. Which may sound cruel to you but… I'm sure even in your world, Pokemon and humans weren't always friends."

They were quiet, contemplating. "If anyone finds out we or Leon were human, what could happen?" Piers enquired. The idea of humans being so cruel, he didn't want to linger on though he knew it was true even back home. "Is Leon safe out there?"

"I really can't say, though the tales on some continents are friendlier than others. Hopefully those Pokemon against humans would just think he's crazy, if he brought up such a thing. I told my son the good and the bad but I'm afraid he has a tendency to focus on the negative. You probably shouldn't let him find out." She looked at the busy apprentices, far from hearing range and too occupied to look at them. "Maybe keep it under hush with the folks in our village too, for better or worse. I won't let it slip to anyone else about who you are, but I think the mayor would be able to help you more if you tell him the truth. I assure you, he won't bring out the torches or anything."

Ninetales certainly gave the impression he wouldn't care, being the weirdo he was. Raihan looked to Piers. "We should go get some rest then visit him."

"That sounds like a good idea, I wonder if Snowcap and Blissey would mind us staying at the clinic a bit longer," Piers mumbled. "Unless there's an inn or anything you know about, Espeon?"

"Unfortunately not, we're a small village," she answered with a crooked smile. "I'm sure Ninetales will be able to arrange something for you, however."

As Growlithe carried out the order, Espeon returned to her table. Piers rested his head on the wood of their own table as exhaustion hit, Raihan nudging him. "Come on, let's finish up here then get some sleep."

The clinic was slow when they returned, Blissey sweeping the floor whilst Snowcap manned the reception. The hatted Eevee pounced as he noticed them, they answered some curious questions and avoided others before he guided them back to the room they had stayed in the previous night, no other Pokemon having foolishly injured themselves to occupy it.

The last thing they did before they hit the hay was ask for their helper to summon the mayor for a meeting later that evening, with hopes that maybe they could make sense of things. As Raihan wrapped up the last of their business, he noticed Piers had fallen asleep on the floor, tail wagging as his soft breathing escaped as scratchy quiet noises. With a chuckle, he carefully nudged him onto his shell, before locating and settling into his bed, soon blocking out the yawns in favour of the darkness taking him under.

"Raihan, stop teaching my little sister to swear!" Raihan heard his friend's voice squeak as he barged into the room, prompting laughter from Leon as he scrambled to his feet, waving his hands around in response to Piers'... piercing… glare.

"Wha? It wasn't me this time, I swear!"

"Like hell it wasn't, Ma just waterboarded me with soap for teaching Marnie to say 'fuckin' heck'!" As if to prove a point, he wiped away the froth that had bubbled back up in his saliva via speech. The noise Leon was now making suspiciously resembled choking on his own cackling. "I swear Morpeko was copying her too, the way its li'l mouth was squeaking 'pek-pek-ko'!"

Raihan looked at his other friend, who was dangerously close to falling off the bed. "That might be your imagination. Hey, I think you're going to kill Lee!"

The irritated pale young lad shot a glare at Leon, seeing he was visibly fighting for his breath amongst the giggles. "Hey! Die quietly, will ya?"

"F-Fuck you, it's funny! Isn't it, Charmander?" His Pokemon partner piped up from under the bed where it was playing with Raihan's Trapinch, who toddled out to give Piers' already ripped jeans a friendly nip. "Where's Ziggy?"

Piers crouched down and pet the Trapinch, his hand unhooking a ball off his belt. "I kept him in, of course, he would have chased every Butterfree on the way here." With one press, the ball enlarged, with the next it opened and in a flash of red light, his tiny Zigzagoon sprang out, instantly mingling with the other two Pokemon. He couldn't help but smile at the sight. "I can't wait to get out and officially start my journey, no more Mum scrubbing my mouth out and no getting my food stolen. That little blighter Morpeko is cute but damn, I am tired of getting my lava cookies snacked on."

"How does a Morpeko open the packets to get to those things?" Raihan mused as Leon laughed, much more toned down and much less likely to hospitalise him for a choking accident.

"I think Marnie's been helping your little thief!"

Rolling his eyes, Piers allowed himself to find the funny side. For a few seconds. Then he sighed and jumped on the bed next to them, laying back. "I can't wait for the Gym Challenge to begin. The chairman seems to think you have a great chance at winning, doesn't he Lee?"

Suddenly their purple haired friend averted his eyes, his smile faltering. "Yeah… Mum and Hop seem to think so too, Hop is already telling all the other kids I'm going to beat their siblings up. In a Pokemon battle, of course."

"You know more about Pokemon than us, I think you have a good chance." Raihan followed up that sweet remark by sticking his tongue out. "Though of course, I'll win! Ground beats Fire, and all that!"

"What about when Charmander becomes Charizard, though? Then he'll be immune to it." Piers patted the cheerful lizard on the head in response to those eyes silently pleading, expectant. "And Charizard learns Dragon Claw, Flygon might be in for a bad time, right?"

Leon grinned, watching Raihan glare at their punk friend. "What- Not that much- Charizard won't get STAB, because it's not a dragon! So I can still beat Lee with Stone Edge!"

"You mean 'Stone Miss'?" Leon piped up, his eyes glistening. He held his arms out and Charmander jumped into them, he held his partner to his chest careful the flame did not make contact. "We'll wait and find out, eh, Rai? We'll start our journeys together and find out at the end who'll be the unbeatable champion!"

Raihan noticed when he came to, that Piers was not in the room with him. His body felt sluggish as he dragged himself out, head tilting from one side to the other searching for a flash of black or white, listening out for a distinct voice that would no doubt still feel tired even after 8 hours of sleep. The clinic was already in business for the day, he could see Snowcap fiddling with the check-in book as Blissey led a Vulpix into one of the empty rooms. He did not have to open his mouth to ask, the Eevee immediately pointed to the door with one word. "Outside."

He did not have to stray far from the clinic to find him, he could hear him almost immediately. The bushes near the building soon broke out into an open space, where he saw a familiar raccoon curled up, staring at some vivid blooming flowers.

"Piers…"

"Don't." As if hearing how harsh his tone was, Piers immediately lowered his shaky voice. "Please. I just… I just needed a moment alone."

That word was in past tense for a reason, he realised as he crawled over and sunk down next to him. "You dreamed about him too, didn't you?"

Piers averted his eyes, however the scratchy tint to his words gave the impression his throat had long dried out. "We… We need to find him. If we don't… What do you think will happen to him?"

Raihan searched for words but his mind came up blank. He did not want to talk about it, however he could not stand it. The way Piers had snapped last night, that memory silently taunted him. Maybe yelling back had not been the right decision, maybe he had deserved that Scald attack.

He rested his head against his side, wishing he had arms. These stubby legs were not enough to comfort his friend, however he would try his best. "We'll find him. When we do, we'll be able to find our way home, alright?" He gave a quiet laugh. "We're going to have one heck of a story to tell Marnie, aren't we?"

Piers could not speak any more words, instead he looked back at Raihan and allowed himself to finally relax.